Answers She Deserved
by darlaranger
Summary: In the midst of a series of kidnappings, Sara and Grissom must work together to overcome a gigantic obstacle in their past.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Answers She Deserved : Chapter One  
  
**Author**: L.Lawrence  
  
**Category**: GSR, AU  
  
**Spoilers:** None  
  
**Rating:** PG-13  
  
**Summary:** In the midst of a series of kidnappings, Sara and Grissom must work together to overcome a gigantic obstacle in their past.  
  
**Author's Note**: This is an AU fic—not everything will mirror what actually occurred in the shows. I'm taking a few liberties (okay, a lot). I've made both Sara and Grissom a tad older. Also, I don't have the greatest forensic knowledge, a lot of what I write about that's case- related will be something I've heard on TV or read about or just thought fit nicely into my plot. Much of it will be incorrect and just plain wrong. I'm sorry. Also, my summaries suck. I'm sorry for that too.  
  
********************  
  
She knew she should have made sure to check the gas level before leaving that last town. She should have stopped and filled up, she should have used that head her mother -- no, grandmother -- was always saying she had. If she had, she sure as Sam wouldn't be contemplating pulling over onto the side of the road and waiting for the inevitable state patrol trooper to drop by and help her out. She could keep going and see how far she got, but eventually the car would run out of gas and she'd have to pull over anyway.  
  
Heck with it, might as well do it now; make the decision for herself rather than be forced into it later. She liked to be in charge, in control of what was happening around her. Like her sis--like her mother. They were the same like that. That made her stomach hurt--thinking about her mother, the mother who had been called sister until just recently.  
  
God, if only she hadn't been so curious, if only she had listened when her grandmother told her to stay out of the boxes in the attic. If only she hadn't seen the photographs, the birth certificate, the handwriting on the letter addressed with her own name. If only she hadn't been so driven to know the facts, to find out the truth.  
  
She wouldn't be here on the side of some deserted highway in the middle of nowhere, that's for sure. She wouldn't be tired, hungry, and angry. She wouldn't be confused. She wouldn't be heading to Nevada for answers she deserved. For the truth she was entitled to. For love she sought.  
  
If only she weren't so much like her mother.  
  
* ~ * ~ *  
  
"So, what've we got?" Grissom asked from his position at the head of the table, "Anything yet?" He was met by silence. He looked around at his seated co-workers, each avoiding his eyes. Suddenly the papers at their fingertips were fascinating, as was the patterns of the wooden table they sat around.  
  
"Okay then, let's go over what we know. Sara, give us a rundown on what we know so far."  
  
Sara straightened in her seat and put down the cup of coffee that had been making its way toward her mouth. "Well, so far we've got two girls missing. Maggie Higgins, a seventeen year old girl who was disappeared on her way home from cheerleading practice last week Monday. The other girl is Audrey l'Angou, a nineteen year old student at UNLV who was reported missing Saturday after her roommate noted that she had not been in the dorm for at least two days.  
  
"Ok," Grissom said, "what else. Nick?"  
  
The younger man looked up quickly and cleared his throat.  
  
"Well, we really have no eyewitnesses to the disappearance of the girls, nothing to tie them together factually. The only thing we have are statements—from the Audrey's roommate and Maggie's mother—of a green car popping up in odd places over the past few weeks. The surveillance camera on the outside of the dormitory has footage of a car parked under a lamppost a few nights in a row but it's always obstructed by trees and a flapping American flag. We couldn't get anything off of the tape, it's useless."  
  
"But," the older man said, standing up, "we're assuming that the two abductions are related, right?"  
  
Nick nodded.  
  
"Okay. That's what we've got and it's pathetically sparse. Catherine and Nick, I want you to focus on Maggie Higgins; Warrick, you're with me and Sara. We'll be focusing on Audrey. We need to find a connection, a trigger, anything between the two that would explain why they were the two that this guy chose to take. And we need to isolate it fast, because I've got a feeling he's going to do it again."  
  
* ~ * ~ *


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:**  Answers She Deserved : Chapter Two

**Author:  **L.Lawrence

**Category: ** GSR, AU

**Spoilers:**  None

**Rating:  **PG-13

**Summary:**  In the midst of a series of kidnappings, Sara and Grissom must work together to overcome a gigantic obstacle in their past.

**Author's Note:**    This is an AU fic—not everything will mirror what actually occurred in the shows.  I'm taking a few liberties (okay, a lot).  I've made both Sara and Grissom a tad older.  Also, I don't have the greatest forensic knowledge, a lot of what I write about that's case-related will be something I've heard on TV or read about or just thought fit nicely into my plot.  Much of it will be incorrect and just plain wrong.  I'm sorry.  Also, my summaries suck.  I'm sorry for that too.

********************

Boredom had never suited her.  She liked to have something to do, something to concentrate on.  Her mind was never satisfied, never quiet or calm.  Instead, it was always working--always.  That was probably why she'd always had such a hard time sleeping; her brain just wouldn't shut off, always trying to figure out that last crossword clue, to solve that final puzzle.  

Just as well.  It's not like she'd be able to sleep out here anyway, stranded in the desert and all.  Not with while she was waiting for some kind stranger to pass by and give her a hand.  And certainly not in this heat.

Oh, God.  The heat.  If the boredom didn't kill her, the heat surely would.  Already her thin t-shirt was half soaked in sweat, her shorts were feeling kind of damp, and her toes were squishing around in her soggy socks.   With any luck, someone would come by soon.  Hopefully before she melted into the sand or ran out of water.  

Or both.

* ~ * ~ *

"So," Sara said, "how do you want to do this?  Grid?  Spiral?  One person?  Two?"  She stood behind Grissom, rocking back and forth on her heels in her zeal to begin.  

Grissom paused and turned back to her, "Well, the dorm room is really too small for a spiral search to be useful.  We'll do a grid, you take the left side. I'll take the right."

Sara nodded and Grissom turned back to the closed door in front of him.  After removing the _Caution _tape, they entered the small room.  

The first thing Sara noticed was just how small it was.  "Wow," she said, "I had forgotten just how small a dorm room could be.  It's going to be hard not to get in each other's way.  Maybe just one of us should do the search."

Grissom shook his head, "No, two sets of eyes means a better chance of one of us seeing something important."

"If we knew what we were looking for, it'd be easier," she said as she turned toward her side of the room. 

A muffled _Mmmmppphhh_ was her only response.  Grissom had already begun his search. Sighing, Sara snapped her gloves on and got to work.

* ~ * ~ *

Okay, this was just insane.  She had been sitting on the hood of her car for an hour and not a single car had passed.  Not one single car.  She could have sworn that at least five cars had passed her earlier, heading back where she was coming from.  

But now?  No one.  

If she wasn't so sure that it was a stupid idea and liable to kill her, she'd just get off the damn car and start walking.  

But no, that was stupid; she knew it.  So she took another swig from the water bottle at her side and started to hum the first song that popped into her head.  She hoped that a rousing rendition of _Seventy-Six Trombones _would keep the vultures at bay for at least another hour.

* ~ * ~ *

Sara was humming, Grissom noticed.  Quietly to herself, but it was quite noticeable in the cramped quarters they were in.  He smiled to himself and went back to searching for a clue, any clue, in the girls' things.  

It was a typical dorm room--two beds, two dressers, two desks.  Two girls had tried to cram as much of their lives as they could into a closet-size room.  There were textbooks strewn across the floor, under the beds; posters on the wall, topics ranging from the hottest movie stars to pre-Raphaelite art prints to the latest rock band.  Sara was busy poking through the missing girl's dresser drawers, hoping to something, anything that would give them a hint to what had happened.  Grissom was on his knees, looking under the bed.  Suddenly, his head pops up.

"Sara?  If you were nineteen and sharing a room with a semi-stranger, where would you keep the things you didn't want anyone to know about?"

She paused, "You mean, where would I keep my diary?  I'd either shove it under the mattress or I'd dump it in my suitcase."  

He immediately began to gingerly pluck the sheets out from between the mattress and box-spring of the bed.  Sara went to the closet that she hadn't had a chance to search yet and pulled out two large suitcases.  One was locked, but the other had been left unlatched.   She tried that one first.

"Gotcha," she said as she pulled out a slim red book from the inner lining of the suitcase.  She opened the cover and flipped through a few pages, stopping on one towards the middle of the book.  

"Grissom?  I think we just got our first break."

* ~ * ~ *

At first she thought she was seeing things that the heat and the wait had finally gotten to her, had fried her brain.  That couldn't actually be a vehicle there in the distance.  She closed her eyes and cleared her mind, then looked again.  It was still there; in fact, it was closer.

There was a car there.  Finally!  It was about time.  She'd only been waiting three and a half hours for someone to drive by.

The car came closer and closer.  Soon she could make out the dark green of the paint against the yellow-orange of the sand and sun.

Finally.

She was saved.

* ~ * ~ *


End file.
